Double Shekel - Abdashtart I Sidon

Abdashtart I — known to Greek sources as Straton I — ruled Sidon during a period when the city functioned as the dominant naval supplier to the Achaemenid Persian fleet. The double shekel series issued under his authority reflects Sidon's extraordinary autonomy within the Persian imperial system; the city retained the right to strike silver in its own name at a weight standard that owed nothing to Persian convention.

Abdashtart I maintained close ties with Athens, and ancient sources describe him as genuinely philhellenic — a characterization that sits in productive tension with a coinage that remained resolutely Phoenician in its weight and iconographic tradition. His reign ended when he was deposed and killed during the events leading to the catastrophic Sidonian revolt against Artaxerxes III.